How Religious Groups Differ in Educational Attainment
A new Pew Research Center global demographic study shows differences in educational attainment among the world’s major religious groups.
A new Pew Research Center global demographic study shows differences in educational attainment among the world’s major religious groups.
Jews are more highly educated than any other major religious group around the world, while Muslims and Hindus tend to have the fewest years of formal schooling. But all religious groups are making gains, particularly among women.
Religion and education, two of humankind’s most ancient endeavors, have long had a close relationship. Historians and social scientists have written about this relationship and about how the two may influence each other. This chapter presents a broad overview of scholarly research into the ways religion can affect educational achievement. It is not an exhaustive […]
With an average of 13.4 years of schooling, Jews are the most highly educated of the world’s major religious groups. Nearly all Jewish adults ages 25 and older around the world (99%) have at least some primary education, and a majority (61%) has post-secondary degrees. This high level of education has been the case for […]
Hindus have made substantial educational gains in recent decades. Hindu adults (ages 25 and older) in the youngest generation analyzed in the study, for example, have an average of 3.4 more years of schooling than those in the oldest generation. However, Hindus still have the lowest level of educational attainment of any major religious group […]
The public makes clear distinctions in assessing the extent to which some groups in the society face discrimination today. A large majority of Americans (82%) say Muslims in the United States face discrimination – with 57% saying they face “a lot” of discrimination. But majorities also say that gays and lesbians (76%), blacks (76%), Hispanics […]
The list of general sources below provides bibliographic information for data sources used to inform estimates of educational attainment by religion. Most data were acquired directly from the organizations that collected them, but, in some cases, data were obtained from data archives. The list of archives from which data were obtained appears after the general […]